Humidifying and air-conditioning apparatus.



PATENTED MAY '7, 1907.

S. W. CRAMER. HUMIDIFYING AND AIR CONDITIONING APPARATUS.

APPLICATION FILED APR.18. 1906.

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s. W. ORAMER. I

HUMIDIFYING AND AIR CONDITIONING APPARATUS.

APPLICATION FILED APR,18,1906.

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S.'W. ORAMER. HUMIDIPYING AND AIR CONDITIONING APPARATUS.

APPLICATION FILED APE. 18.1906.

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HUNHDIFYING AND AIR-CONDITIONING APPARATUS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 7,1907.

Application filed April 18, 1906. Serial No. 312,453.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, STUART W. CRAMER, a citizen of the United States, residing at Charlotte, in the county of Mecklenburg and State of North Carolina, have invented cerair conditioning apparatus for textile and 'tablish.

other factories, is designed for use in systems of automatic regulation of the humidity and temperature in such factories, disclosed in catch or arrest any co arse foreign matter that my Patent No. 811,383, dated January 30th, 1906 and No. 813,083, dated February 20th, 1906, and the invention consists in certain improvements in construction, which will be fully disclosed in the following specificatio and claims.

This apparatus is designed for placing along the wall between the windows in a room in a factory, mill, or other building, taking air from the outside, and by a system of dampers also from the inside in varying proportions, as may be desired. The incoming air is thus treated or uniformly conditioned so that its introduction into the room does not disarrange or disturb the conditions that the whole object of the apparatus seeks to es- It is a well-known fact. that ventilating textile factory buildings by openin win.- dows or doors, is not only injurious om a manufacturing standpoint interfering withthe pro er running of the Work, but also positive y disarranges and disturbs the nor mal uniform conditions of the fibers of the material which are required for the most favorable conditions to manufacturing. It is also a well known fact that air-containing lint, dust, and other impurities when blown or conducted past wetted surfaces, or sheets of water, will not readily part with its impurities. The surface tension of the water operates in antagonism to air cleansing, at least so far as relieving it of any dry foreign matter is. concerned. In my apparatus therefore, when the air is first drawn into the apparatus by a fan, I provide for a thorough dousing or wetting of the air by a strong sprayor cloud of vapor; in the second place, realizing that water directly discharge into the atmosphere in however finely an atomized condition, is not a benefit, but, on the contrary, an objection until it is evaporated, and realizing furthermore, the practical impossibility of evaporating fine particles of water when discharged or blown into the atmosphere, especially after a moderate percentage of humidity has been attained, I next provide for removing all of the coarse particles of water, including the fine spray and vapor, from the air, that it may issue from the apparatus colorless and free from even a fog-like appearance, but thoroughly cleansed from all solid impurities. Furthermore, just before the air issues from the apparatus, it impinges directly and normally upon the surface of a body of water, that will may have escaped being deposited upon the wet surfaces to which reference has already been made.

In my present apparatus I provide first a casing in which, to treat the air; a fan for drawing in and forcing through the casing a current of air eitherfrom without the building or from within the building itself, or amixture of both inside and outside air; a spray chamber in which the air is driven through a dense cloud of fine spray and vapor; a collecting, condensing and evaporating chamber, in

which wetted woven fabrics of an absorbent and evaporative nature, geometrically or otherwise arranged to the best advantage, are kept moist by the spray deposited on them by the current of air as it comes to.

them direct from the spray chamber. Said woven fabrics presenting surfaces upon which deleterious and foreign matter in suspension in the air are readily deposited by their having been wetted in the spray chamber; and finally, an open basin of water at the bottom of the casing, upon which water the air must impinge before it can issue radially from the casing, thus collecting the last traces of any coarse particles of lint, fly, sweepings etc,

that may have been too heavy ,to remam on.

the fabrics in the collecting chamber above, but which in their heavy and wetted' condition arereadily caught in the basin of water instead of being allowed to skip out (as a stone is glanced or ricochetted on a pool or water) with the air in the casing, which has heretofore been the case in apparatus of this ty e.

The invention will be fully disclosed in the following specification and claims dow for supplying air fromoutside a build Reference being had to the drawings and the designating characters thereon, the numeral 1 indicates the outer casing of sheet metal, shown suspended 011 supports 1, but may be supported in various ways, according to'the position of the apparatus, 2 a concentrically arranged and circumferentially corrugated annular deflector for breaking up the cone shaped sheet of water discharged by the spray-head 3 in a very fine spray into the spray-chamber 4, below or beyond the deflector, and thereby producing within said chamber a dense cloud of fine spray for thoroughly dousing or wetting the air passing through the chamber. The water is supplied through a pi e 5, having stop cock 6, a filter or settling c..1amber 7, pipe 8 having a wire gauze strainer 9 within the filter, and the spray-head 3. The spray-head is provided with a nozzle 10 having a discharge orifice 10 and a valve seat 11 provided with a number of fine grooves (not shown) to separate the water into very fine streams. The valve 13 is a smooth inverted cone. It is obvious that the same result can be achieved by having the valve grooved, and the valve seat smooth. The body 14 of the spray-head is provided with a branch 14, to which the pipe 8 is connected, and the valve stem 15 is guided in the perforated diaphragm 16, is screw-threaded at its upper end to afford vertical adjustment of the valve for regulating the amount of water passing through the valve. The annular deflector 2 is supported on bars 17.

18 is a door in the casing affording access .to the spray-chamber, and to the condensing,

collecting and evaporating chamber 19. This part of the casing is made in two parts or; semi-cylindersand are secured to the stays 20, by thumb screws 21, to facilitate the insertion and removal of the collecting and evaporating bodies .22 in said chamber. The bodies 22 are preferably tubular, made of woven fabric, and may be'co'mposed of two concentridmembers, as shown in Fig. 3, arranged in geometrical or other suitable manner and supported upon a frame 23, which may be semi-cylindrical, as shown in said Fig. 3, or of any other preferred construction.

The bodies 22, are designed and constructed to be readily-removed from the casing for the Fig. 4a vertical sectionwith the spray andv is forced down through the condensing chamber, the air not only being thoroughlysaturated with aqueous vapor, butvalso carrying mechanically in sus-' pension a cloud of spray. This cloud of spray surrounds and comes in contact with the absorbent surfaces in the condensing chamber in such a manner that practically every particle of air comes into contact with these damp surfaces. Naturally then, the air gives up to the absorbent surfaces all the spray and moisture that is carried in suspension, retaining only what moisture there is in .it completely assimilzited. In other" words the air is saturated, and is discharged in a perfectly colorless condition, though saturated, no moisture is visible.

24 is a drip-flange at the lower end of the casing to arrest any drops of water that may escape through the casing.

25 is a basin which contains the drip water from the apparatus, and overflows through the pipe 26, provided with a strainer 27, and pipe 28 which returns the water to its source of supply. by the use of a pump, notshown. The upper end of the basin 25 is provided with a flaring flange 29 to collect drip water, and direct the aqueous and colorless vapor discharged from the apparatus laterally therefrom.

The air is furnished. to the apparatus by a fan 30 at the upper end of the casing, driven by an electric motor 31, or by any other preferred means. The air passes through and around the deflector 2, in contact with the highly comminuted particles of water within the deflector, and also passes through the fine mist or aqueous vapor in the annular chamber 2 surrounding the deflector and thereby receives its initial saturation.

In Fig. 6 have shown the apparatus connected to a conduit 32,- extending through a window 33 for supplying air from outside the building, and is provided with a valve 34 for regulating the quantity of air admitted.

In equipping a factory or mill, with part of the humidifiers communicating with the outside air, the supply of air to the room can be regulated so as to provide a constant supply of fresh air when desired. The moisture laden air passing through the apparatus is projected against the surface of the water in the basin 25 and is deflected laterally between the flanges 24 and 29, and any solid in1puri- IIO ties which may have escaped the bodies 22-are arrested. When the watersupply is cut off and the fan 30 is still kept running, thus forcmg air down from the room through the apparatus, it operates, though to a lesserde-- fore, that the apparatus at such a time will operate as a condenser, abstracting much more moisture from the atmospherethan it adds -to it by evaporation. As long as this condition exists, the a paratus reduces excessive humidity, para oXical though it may seem, aswell as at other times it operates as a humiditying device, raising the percentage of humidity. There is a point at which e uilibrium will be established, and that is w hen the amount of water condensed is equaled by'the amount of water evaporated;

. this point, as indicated by humidity percentas shown.

shaped surfaces,

age varies according to'the temperature of the'air'.

The filling, as I'may term it, for the conof any absorbent material, such as cypress wood as well as of woven or knitted fabrics, Or it is obvious that this filling or of solid tubular or other may be of, metal which, while it will be of a I less efficient-type, still does not depart from the spirit of my invention.

Havin thus fully described my invention,

' 1. Ina humidifier, acasing comprising a spray-chamber, and a collecting and condensing chamber'beyond the spray-chamber, means for supplying air to the casing, means for supplying spray to the air as it passes through the spray-chamber, a plurality of" collecting. and evaporating ,bodies for extracting the-spray from the air in the condensing and collecting chamber and for the further saturation of the air before it issues from the casing, and means for collecting surplus water from the casing.

" 2. In a humidifier, a casing comprising a s ray-chamber, and a collecting and con d ensing chamber beyond the spray-chamber,

means for supplying air to the casing, means fofsupplymg spray to the air as it passes through the sprayvchamber, a plurality of That is to say, that collecting and evaporative surfaces for ex: tractingthe spray from the air in the. condensing and collecting chamber and for the further saturation of the air before it issues from the casin means for removably supporting said collecting and evaporative surfaces in the casing, and means for collecting surplus water from the casing.

3. In a humidifier, a casing comprising a spray-chamber, means for supp ying air'to the casing, a spray-head within the spraychamber, and means for supplying fluid to the spray-head; a collecting and condensing chamber beyond the spray-chamber and r0 vided with a plurality of bodies arrange for removing the particles of spray from the current of air and for the further saturation of the air before it issues from the casing, and a drip or catch basin provided with means for removing surplus Water.

4. In a humidifier, a'casing comprising a spray-chamber, and a collecting and condensing chamber beyond the spray-chamber, means for supplying air to' the casing, a spray-head within the' spray-chamber, and means for suppl g fluid to the spray-head bodies arrange within the collecting and condensing chamber for removing the particles of spray from the air and for the further saturation of the air before it issues from the casing, and a drip or catch basin provided with means fdr removing surplus water.

5. In a humidifier, a cas1n a spray-head, a concentrically arranged de ector having a circumferentially corrugated wall, an annular chamber around said deflector, a spraychamber beyond the deflector and means for supplying fluid to the spray-head, a collecting and condensing chamber beyond the spray chamber, bodies arranged Within the collect ing and condensing chamber for removing the particles of spray from the air and forthe further saturation of the air before it issues from the casing, and a drip or catch basin provided with means for removing surplus water. i In testimony whereof I affix my signature, in presence of two witnesses.

STUART W. CRAMER.

Witnesses v D. H. MoCoLLoUcn, Jr., D. W. L EBENTH LEn. 

